Parents, have you noticed any positive changes in your teen since COVID-19 necessitated closed schools and distance learning? Have you noticed a more alert adolescent? A less anxious adolescent? An easier-to-get-along-with adolescent? Had you expected the opposite?

For many families, the school-from-home day starts later than a typical day, and the lack of travel time to school has resulted in many teens gaining an hour or more of shut-eye in the morning. If your teen is in a suspiciously better mood, it may be the result of your family’s unwitting participation in a real-time experiment of what happens when your teen is afforded the opportunity to sleep later on school mornings.